mother may i
by incense-whiskers
Summary: on motherhood - our avatar girls have grown up!
1. Katara

_Disclaimer: I don't own, and the world is probably really grateful._

_Starring: Katara_

_Author's Note: Just studying the relationships between characters and their mothers._

_Summary: The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. - Rajneesh _

_o0

Katara finds that, as she ages, she is losing the memory of her mother's face. She knows that if she looks into a reflective surface Kya is there, in her eyes and smooth forehead, in the glint of a smile and curve of a cheek. Her voice of her mother is gone, but lingers in her mind like the lazy connection she has to the tides – the knowledge that it is there but the inability to firmly grasp it between her fingers leaves her frustrated. She remembers the words, the lessons, the firm kindness that kept her from killing Sokka with her poor waterbending. Water, she was told by Gran-Gran, is as restless as the wind. It keeps moving beneath the surface and gives life to everything it touches, just as it can drown it all away. Water was a quiet strength unless it was pushed, much like a mother's love. It was why Katara stood there at the riverbank and whispered her prayers to Yue in hopes of gaining some sort of peace that the Moon Spirit had embodied before Zhao.

The baby kicks and Katara absently strokes her abdomen.

Katara cannot remember her mother and fears that she will make an inadequate one in a few months time. She knows how to love fiercely, that is after all how she has loved everyone from her travels. Her stitches have improved (Sokka now leaves all of his ruined leggings and tunics at her doorstep when they are in the same vicinity), and after the course of her adventures, her abilities with a soup pot are unrivalled. But in the depths of her heart she feels unprepared for this moment.

The water is cool at her fingertips and the baby rolls within the womb, as it tends to do when she bends her element. Tossing the sphere idly between her hands she widens her stance and moves through the basics movements and her eyes remained fixated on the moon above her and ruminates on Sokka's words.

He knows without words of her concern, as he should as her brother. He has been proudly carving spears and boomerangs with blunted edges for his niece or nephew to use since the moment she told him her news. He laughs with Toph about the names that Katara should name the child, tells stories to Aang that are the livelihood of their tribe and scowls at the lack of material to make a proper Southern infant sling.

"I only remember you washing my socks and making sea prunes. I remember you sinking ships to keep us safe and worrying about money to get us through to the next market. I remember you trying to keep the peace when you should have been laughing and goofing off. You already know this. This baby of yours doesn't change anything," he said as he fitted some sling material around her shoulders. "So stop worrying and relax."

But Katara has seen what a rag-tag bunch of seemingly insignificant children can do and know that he is wrong. Her child will change the world in its own way, just as she and Sokka have done. Just like water moves, so will she, and the river continues to flow to the ocean, her child will know of her stories and learn of the difference between right and wrong.

Kya's face may be lost to her but her legacy is not.


	2. Azula

_Disclaimer: I don't own, and the world is probably really grateful._

_Starring: Azula_

_Author's Note: Just studying the relationships between characters and their mothers._

_Summary: The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. - Rajneesh _

_o0

Azula does not love her mother. She does not.

Fire Princess Ursa was weak. She was a liar and a coward. She chose sides and deserted the Fire Nation.

Fire Princess Ursa chose Zuko over her. Weak Zuko with his clumsy katas and his compassion – it is obvious that she was the better choice

So Azula does not love her mother. Azula does not know how to love.

From the moment of conception, Azula decided that she would raise this child firmly, and teach it everything she knew: combat, firebending, strategies, manipulation. Her child would rise up and mold the Fire Nation into the vast empire it should have been.

But from the moment her daughter was born, Azula swore that she would never give birth again and that she would destroy anything that would get in the way of her little girl's happiness. Suddenly all her grand schemes fell to the wayside in favor of combat practice and tea parties in the gardens, stories instead of tactics, laughter and finger painting instead of isolation and fear.

All the things that Ursa wanted to enjoy with her as a child, all the things that she found to be useless in the quest for the crown. All the love that Azula lost to envy is now rekindled in little hands with eager questions, temper tantrums and curiosity.

The little girl sleeps soundly in her arms and Azula swallows her shame, nothing can be done now, the past is in ashes.

Azula loves her daughter and will not make the same mistake twice.


	3. Toph

_Disclaimer: I don't own, and the world is probably really grateful._

_Starring: Toph_

_Author's Note: Just studying the relationships between characters and their mothers._

_Summary: The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new. - Rajneesh _

__o0_

He sometimes asks questions about grandmother and grandfather.

Toph does not lie and answers all of his questions. She firmly believes in honesty, respect. She afterall, is the ground on which he stands on to judge the world outside of their family dwelling.

"Grandmother and Grandmother loved me and tried to protect me. They kept me in their mansion and forbade me to interact with the world," she explained as she scrubbed behind his ears with a wet cloth. "I was not allowed to earthbend because I might hurt myself." The boy squirms unhappily at the thought of his mother unable to bend, and the warm bathwater swirls up the sides of the tub.

"But I went to the badgermoles and learned anyway. I taught myself to see the world."

"With your feet!" he chimes and she wiggles her toes at him. "Did you tell Grandfather and Grandmother?"

"No. They would not have understood. They still do not understand," she replies as she takes the soap and ever-so-gently rubs her feet. "They believe that because I am blind, I cannot do anything. The world is beyond my reach."

"But you can do so many things! You tell me stories and you can see in the dark and you can bend metal and you make me moon peach custard!" Toph can feel his heart rate climb in agitation, affronted that these mysterious grandparents would ever try to hurt his mother. Scooping him into her arms, holds him close. "That wasn't fair to you." He whispers.

"No. It was not fair. It is why we do not go any visit them because they are angry with me, they think I am foolish. It is why you have never met them, and for that I am sorry. Grandfather could play the snugi horn while Grandmother sang and the two were very beautiful. Grandfather would explain my lessons to me in stories as I drifted off to sleep at night and Grandmother would let me make bread with her in the kitchen," she tells him softly. "They are not cruel, little one. Merely misguided in their beliefs."

"Can we change their minds?" he asks, ear over her heart. She cocks her head and smiles.

"They are mountains, unyielding in their devotion to protect me. Changing their minds will be difficult." She attempts to explain.

"But we're the greatest earthbenders ever!" he exclaims.

In the other room, her husband laughs.


End file.
